Money found was accounted for: Butt

Former Pakistan captain and one of three accused in the spot-fixing case Salman Butt, is still on the defensive. He now claims that the currency found during a raid on his room in London in August this year, was legitimate and entirely accounted for. His claims made to Sky Television in an interview broadcast on Monday night, came in reaction to the accusation that he took black money for the orchestration of bowling deliberate, planned no balls in the fourth Test against England at the Rose Bowl.

"The rest of the money was advance payment for my bat stickers for which I was under contract with Capital Cricket, which shows on the back of my bat. I was given £2500 for the opening of an ice-cream parlour in Tooting [in south London]. I believe the name [of the parlour] is Afters and the manager, or the people working over there, will tell you that I had to do the opening of the ice-cream parlour along with Mohammad Amir. That's what we were paid for," said Butt.

Butt took over the Pakistan Test captaincy from Shahid Afridi when the latter retired mid-way through the series against England in August. After Butt was implicated in a News of the World sting operation along with team-mates Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, the three were placed under provisional suspension by the ICC, their subsequent appeals were rejected and now between Jan 8 and 16, they are due to appear before an independent tribunal which will determine their culpability in the case.

Meanwhile, Aftab Gul, the lawyer who will be representing Butt at January's hearings, has claimed he has evidence of corruption in the game and big names of the people involved. Gul said spot-fixing was the biggest form of cricket corruption since it was easy to conduct.